In Win celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new Mod in Taiwan event

Anthony Garreffa | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Mar 7, 2016 11:52 PM CST

In Win is a company that never ceases to impress, with the company celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Kicking off their big 3-0, the company will "we renew our gaming products website and hope to provide more detailed information to visitors".

Not only that but In Win is starting off their first modding contest - hosting it at their own Taoyuan factory, between May 27-29. The Mod in Taiwan event will kick off days before Computex, and will be a live modding event. Modders from around the world will mod In Win's famous cases, as well as get a peek into In Win's production center where all of their signature chassis and products are made.

TweakTown will be a media partner at the event, so you can expect live coverage from us during the entire show.

Continue reading: In Win celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new Mod in Taiwan event (full post)

AMD will be livestreaming its 'Capsaicin' event during GDC

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 7, 2016 11:13 PM CST

AMD will be teasing their next-gen Polaris architecture, the Radeon R9 Fury X2, and latest software improvements for Radeon video cards during the Game Developers Conference next week - but, there's a larger event that I feel AMD will be shining a spotlight on - its Capsaicin party, in San Fransisco on March 14, and we will be there - but now you can join us, through a live webcast!

AMD has announced that there will be a live webcast of the Capsaicin event, where the company will be showcasing the latest innovations from the Radeon Technologies Group. RTG Marketing Director Chris Hook posted on Twitter that they will be showing off some very hot and spicy new innovations during GDC 2016.

Last year, AMD announced their LiquidVR software program during GDC 2015, but this event is called "Capsaicin", which is a marquee developer and press event hosted by RTG's Senior VP and Chief Architect Raja Koduri. We will be there in person, bringing you everything live from the event.

Continue reading: AMD will be livestreaming its 'Capsaicin' event during GDC (full post)

SK Hynix hits mass production of 4GB HBM2 in Q3, 8GB HBM2 in Q4 2016

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 7, 2016 9:09 PM CST

Both sides of the video cards war will be using HBM2 (High Bandwidth Memory) with the new super-fast HBM2 going into mass production later this year, kicking off with 4GB HBM2 dies in Q3 2016, followed up by 8GB HBM2 dies in Q4, reports Golem.de.

With AMD expected to unveil its new Polaris architecture in more detail at GDC next week, and NVIDIA following up with its reveal of Pascal at its own GPU Technology Conference in early April, the GPU scene is heating up. SK Hynix setting off its 4GB HBM2 die mass production in Q3 2016 signifies when the next-gen GPUs will launch, where I think we'll see a launch in June/July and availability in the months proceeding their launch.

The professional-orientated next-gen cards will require the 8GB HBM2 dies to get things kicked off in a higher fashion, as that's when we'll see 32GB of HBM2 on a video card - and by just typing that, there's feelings in my body that I've never felt before. 32GB of HBM2? Freakin' incredible, isn't it? We will be at both GDC and GTC, so expect some quick and plentiful coverage from both events in the coming weeks.

Continue reading: SK Hynix hits mass production of 4GB HBM2 in Q3, 8GB HBM2 in Q4 2016 (full post)

'No more CDs' promises Kanye West

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 7, 2016 6:25 PM CST

Even though Kanye West has a vested interest in streaming company Tidal, and despite the fact that physical CD sales are down from their heights of a number of years ago, it's not a revenue stream that many distributors can go without. Except West.

Taking to his favourite social media platform earlier today, the musician has pledged that he won't release any more albums on CD.

West's latest album 'The Life of Pablo' was released exclusively to the Tidal platform last month and no plans have been made to release the album on CD. Presumably now it won't.

Continue reading: 'No more CDs' promises Kanye West (full post)

Facebook Messenger Material design rolling out on Android today

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | Mar 7, 2016 6:03 PM CST

The new Google Material design for Facebook Messenger on Android has been revealed. As you can see, it's much cleaner than what's in use currently, and features a 'new conversation' button.

"If you're using Messenger on Android, you've been wanting a brand new material design for a bit," says Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook David Marcus. "Any major redesign of an essential app used by hundreds of millions of people around the world is painstakingly hard, and that's why we took every precaution to ensure you'd truly enjoy this evolution."

Continue reading: Facebook Messenger Material design rolling out on Android today (full post)

Amazon will restore encryption to Fire OS 5 in future update

Sean Ridgeley | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 7, 2016 5:03 PM CST

Last week it became apparent Amazon had not included support for local encryption with Fire OS 5, which would seem to contradict its support of Apple's fight for encryption. Asked for comment on exactly that and why they would drop support when it seems all the work is done by Google anyway, an Amazon spokesperson simply told us, "We will return the option for full disk encryption with a Fire OS update coming this spring."

Amazon initially said its customers "weren't using" local encryption, so it decided not to include support for it, which appeared flimsy reasoning. Whatever the case, the company has wisely decided to change course, likely in light of how it looks currently.

Continue reading: Amazon will restore encryption to Fire OS 5 in future update (full post)

Australian retailer censors box art of mature-rated games

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 7, 2016 4:34 PM CST

To curb the appeal of violent video games, Target stores in Australia has whitewashed the box art of all R 18+ rated games on its shelves.

Australian retailer censors box art of mature-rated games

An image posted on NeoGAF reveals the exact nature of Target Australia's censoring, showing a whole shelf of mature-rated games packed in Blockbuster-style plain packaging. Instead of the glamorous and colorful artwork that pulls the eye, the games are ensconced in ugly monochrome boxes that only show the rating, game name, and an age restricted warning.

This kind of censorship is nothing new for Target Australia; the chain's "war" against video games is notorious across the globe. The retailer even went so far as to pull all copies of Grand Theft Auto V from its shelves, citing a "significant level of concern" over the game's content.

Continue reading: Australian retailer censors box art of mature-rated games (full post)

Google's Project Fi phone service no longer invite-only

If you've been waiting forever to get access to Google's Project Fi service, we've got some great news for you--the line just got a whole lot shorter. In fact, the line no longer exists.

Google's Project Fi phone service no longer invite-only

Starting today, Google is dropping the invitation-only requirement for its Project Fi cellular service. Now anyone in the United States that owns a Nexus 5X, 6, or 6P handset can sign up for Google's affordable mobile service, which starts at $30 per 1GB of data with unlimited calls and texting.

"We launched Project Fi as an invitation-only Early Access program to make sure we could deliver the best quality of service to our first customers. Today, we're excited to be exiting our invitation-only mode and opening up Project Fi so that people across the U.S. can now sign up for service without having to wait in-line for an invite. "

Continue reading: Google's Project Fi phone service no longer invite-only (full post)

GOG adds optional two-step login, HTTPS encryption

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Mar 7, 2016 3:01 PM CST

Classic and indie games download service GOG.com gets more secure as of today: the powers that be have added an optional two-step login, much like what Steam has employed for years now.

As with Steam, it will prompt you to enter a code sent to your email when you attempt to login from a new browser or location, thus hacking into your account becomes that much more difficult. Additionally, you can clear all of your active GOG sessions across every device and browser to ensure nobody but you has access.

Taking it further, the HTTPS encryption supported by the GOG Galaxy client for awhile now is going to extend across the entire service: the store, forum, chat, downloads, and all of Galaxy. A slow rollout has already begun, and will be complete within the coming weeks.

Continue reading: GOG adds optional two-step login, HTTPS encryption (full post)

Not every Xbox One game is coming to PC, says Phil Spencer

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 7, 2016 2:36 PM CST

Now that Microsoft is bringing its Xbox games lineup to the PC, console owners are worried that their Xbox Ones are now obsolete. As an Xbox One owner myself, I can definitely say I feel left behind, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer says we shouldn't be worried.

Not every Xbox One game is coming to PC, says Phil Spencer

According to Xbox division head Phil Spencer, Microsoft isn't going to bring over every Xbox One game over to Windows 10 PCs. The console will still have its own unique platform exclusives and although the Xbox One is considered a Windows device, it'll still be at the forefront of Microsoft's gaming plans.

"The argument people give me is that 'hey, I'm just going to sell my Xbox One and play all these games on my PC'. I get the emotion around that argument. Frankly, from a financial standpoint, the most cost-effective way to play these games is to own an Xbox One," Spencer said in an interview with IGN. "We're committed to bringing our biggest franchises to both Xbox and Windows, but it doesn't necessarily mean that every game could end up on both platforms. There could be many differences in the play space and how the games play."

Continue reading: Not every Xbox One game is coming to PC, says Phil Spencer (full post)